Known in the art is a book which is titled “Hide and Seek Snail Wobblebugs” published by Cowley Hunter Robinson Ltd., © 2001 by CHR Holdings Ltd., Bath, England. This book has a puppet character, a purple snail, mounted to the back cover and protruding through all the pages and out the front cover and beyond the front cover by about two inches. The child can insert his finger through the back of the book and wiggle the snail against a different background printed on each page. The snail does not form a part of a face on any of the pages because the snail has its own face.
Another relevant prior art children's book is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,772 (1980) to Hamar (Hamar '772). Hamar's book discloses one page of a book having a puppet element fastened to the page. The child can manipulate the puppet element with his fingers. Hamar '772 does not disclose holes through all the pages to allow a projection of the puppet elements all the way through the book. Hamar '772 does not teach a gap between the puppet elements which can be used to augment the face depicted on the page.
The present invention surpasses all known prior art in the amusement value to children. The present invention uses at least two puppet elements mounted to the rear cover of a book. Holes are made in all the pages as well as the front and back covers to enable the puppet elements to project out beyond the front cover of the book. A gap between the holes allows the book's artist to create a multitude of coordinated body and/or facial elements such as different tongues and teeth on each page within the gap area between the holes. Since each page has a different face and/or graphic depiction, the gap area serves to heighten the amusement value of every character depicted, thereby creating a thoroughly entertaining three-dimensional puppet book.